Page 15

FOURTEEN

declan

“What did Willa do to get your head on straight?” Martinez asks.

“She showed up,” I shrug. I’m smiling. I have been since I saw her face in the stands. Gideon catches up to me as we make our way down the tunnel and back to the locker rooms.

“Dec!”

“Giddy!”

We both turn and see our wives holding hands and running towards us. Willa has her wig in her other hand, letting her lilac locks fly freely behind her. I drop my stick and gloves and run for Willa. Well, run as much as you can in skates on a rubber floor. She leaps into my arms like she always does, but I hold her extra tight this time.

“I missed you so fucking much,” I say into her hair, breathing in that candy apple scent that’s become an addiction. “How are you here?” I don’t give her time to answer before I crash my lips into hers. She hesitates for a moment before she lets me in. I kiss her like I’m trying to memorize the feel of her lips, the tiny noises she makes, just her. She feels right in my arms, even with all my gear in the way. Kissing her makes my chest constrict and my heart beat faster than it was while I was just skating. And I know in that moment how absolutely fucked I am.

“Monroe. Banks. Get moving. You have press in five minutes. Bus leaves for the airport in thirty,” Coach barks.

“Fuck,” I mutter, pulling back from Willa, but then going in for a quick kiss before I put her down.

“That was some kiss, hockey boy.” Willa’s voice is playful, but there’s a small crease in her brow that tells me she’s confused. I grab her face and kiss her again, slowly and with a softness I hope she understands. From the look on her face when I pull away, she’s not feeling the same things I am. That’s okay, though. I have plenty of time for her to catch up.

“I’ll call you when we land. Thank you for coming.” I kiss her temple. “You’re the best surprise.”

I turn from her and jog to the locker room, Gideon on my heels. “Let’s go, Giddy!”

I hear him curse under his breath. I just laugh him off. This was one of the best nights of my entire fucking life.

Now I just have to figure out how to ask my wife to date me.

The reporters were brutal. All they wanted to know was who the blonde woman was and how she got me to pass the puck instead of shooting. No matter how many times Gideon and Coach tried to help me divert the questions, they wouldn’t give up. I got up and left, not willing to give them anything until Willa is ready.

“You would’ve lost if she didn’t show,” Finn says. He’s walking towards me, probably having watched that nightmare.

“Probably,” I admit.

“Definitely. You were playing worse than I’ve ever seen you.”

“I scored on you.” I cross my arms and frown.

“Once and it was a fluke. If I had known you suddenly remembered how to play hockey, I would have seen you as more of a threat,” he says with a small smile. “You didn’t get another chance.”

I curse him out under my breath and then hug him. Finn hates hugs, so he’s stiff at first before patting me on the back. “I miss you too, buddy.”

“Monroe!” Coach barks.

“I gotta go. I’ll call you soon.” Finn shakes his head and leaves me to my verbal beating.

“Sorry, Coach. I couldn’t handle all their questions about Willa.”

He sighs, looking exhausted. “I get it, son. I understand why you two want privacy, but you’re going to need to go public. And soon. I’m already getting emails from PR wanting information. The team wants your image clean and even though you’ve stayed out of the press like you promised, it won’t be good enough. They want the wife and the story.”

“I can’t force her to do that just to protect myself,” I argue, even though everyone on the planet knowing Willa’s mine is becoming more appealing by the minute.

“No, but you can ask her. She’s your wife. She comes to your games. It’s not going to stay a secret, Declan. Figure it out.”

“Yes, Coach,” I say to his back. He’s walking away, already having dismissed me.

I rush to the locker room to grab my bag and then head onto the bus. I take my now usual seat next to Ben. He’s already uploaded tonight’s photos onto a tablet and is going through them. He pulls back his hair when he’s editing like this, which reveals a thick, jagged, white scar on his forehead. I want to ask him about it, but Gideon said it was rude.

“You didn’t get any pictures of my wife, did you?” I ask.

“Your wife was there?” He looks up at me in confusion. I may have spent a lot of time last night complaining that I wasn’t going to be seeing Willa for another week. He fell asleep in the middle of my rant.

“Yeah. She surprised me.” A smile breaks out on my face just thinking about the way I felt when I saw her. The heaviness in my heart that I’ve been carrying around all these weeks instantly lifted with her little frown. I love when she gets angry and puts me in my place. She’s fucking adorable.

Ben releases a breath and his shoulders relax. “Thank fuck.”

I laugh a little too loudly. There’s a lot of grumbling and “shut ups” thrown my way from the guys trying to nap. Which is honestly stupid since we’re heading for the airport, not another city.

“I didn’t get a shot of her. I wasn’t at the right angle for that, and San Diego’s security were being dicks about where they would let me go to get a shot.”

“I’m sure they didn’t want you to get a shot of me and make them look bad. It was their choice not to resign me, and I just made them look dumb.”

Ben chuckles. “I thought you were cheating on your wife,” he says with a sigh. “Then I was annoyed with myself because I got some really good shots of you interacting with her.” He tips the tablet so that I can see the screen too and shows me the shots he took.

“I would never cheat on my wife,” I say, not looking at what he’s showing me because I’m still hung up on what he just said. “I would never risk losing her.”

“I thought that too, but then you spent over an hour complaining that you wouldn’t be seeing her. Add that to what these pictures are telling me, and you can see where I would get confused.”

I look down at the pictures. There’s one of me touching my heart, a huge smile on my face. The next one is of me and Gideon, our arms around each other and our sticks pointing towards the stands. You can tell from our faces we’re pointing at people we care about. The last one is of me with my hand on the glass, a look of complete awe on my face. Willa’s hand is visible, but that’s it.

“You didn’t take pictures of her on purpose, but you still took them of me when you thought I was cheating?” I ask.

“I could’ve probably taken a picture of her, but I would have had to change angles, and I was there to shoot the team, not the crowd,” he says. “And I took them because of how you look. Like you were in love.”

“You thought I was in love with a mistress?”

“No.” Ben pinches the bridge of his nose. “I was praying it was your wife. But I didn’t know for sure. If I was certain, I wouldn’t even be sitting next to you.”

“Ouch.”

“I’ve had enough of morally shitty people in my life,” he shrugs. “I won’t choose to have a friend like that.”

“Does that mean you’ll send me those?” I ask.

He laughs quietly. “Yeah, I’ll send them to you and then delete them. I caught the tail end of that press conference.”

“You’re a really good friend, Benny boy.”

“Just send them to your secret wife like you know you want to.”

“Hey! You have a secret boyfriend,” I point out.

“He’s not a secret. It’s just complicated,” Ben argues.

“I like that. I’m stealing it. My wife isn’t a secret, it’s just complicated. Sounds way better than what I’ve been saying.”

“What have you been saying?”

“That she’s so hot she’ll melt brains. So I’m basically saving lives.”

Ben sighs loudly and turns back to his tablet.

I smile and grab my phone. There’s already a text waiting for me.

Princess

You want to tell me what was going on with you before I got there?

No.

I was having an off night. Being on my old home ice was weird. Having to shoot against Finn was even weirder.

That was part of my problem, so I’m not lying. I just think telling her the real reason was how much my heart hurt from missing her should be an in-person conversation.

I didn’t even think of that.

It’s okay, Princess. Seeing you was the perfect distraction.

I still can’t believe you were there. Top five best nights of my life.

What’s number one?

Hasn’t happened yet.

You’re going to get the cup this year. I can feel it.

I smirk. I agree with her, but that’s not what would take the number one spot.

Don’t jinx it!

The bus comes to a stop at the private airstrip. Our team plane is waiting.

I have to board now. Call me after tomorrow’s show?

I will. Good night, hockey boy.

Good night, Princess.

“Did she like them?” Ben asks. He’s standing in the aisle waiting for me.

“I didn’t send them. She’s not ready to see them yet.”

Ben’s brows furrow as he tries to make sense of what I’m saying. “I don’t understand women,” he grumbles.

“Me either, my man,” Martinez says, holding out his fist for Ben to bump. He does before shaking his head and leaving the bus.

“How many more days?” Gideon asks, following me off the bus and straight onto the plane.

“Ten. She’ll be at the New York game next week, but then she goes straight home from there, and we’re on the road for three more days.”

“Maggie wants to get together for dinner whenever you’re both free. She said to invite you to our place. Apparently, Willa was telling her all about how the two of you almost burned down a forest more than once trying to cook hot dogs.”

I bark out a laugh. “Yeah, neither of us should be responsible for cooking if you want to be able to eat it.”

“So, you’ll ask her?” he asks, stopping in front of his usual seat next to Ivanov, who is somehow already asleep.

“Sure. Just tell us when.”

He pats my shoulder and takes his seat. I find mine next to Ben. He’s back to editing on his tablet. I put my headphones in and close my eyes.

Ten more days until I tell Willa how I feel.